Their nomination to host the 2022 competition stunned the world more than the decision to award the 2018 competition to Russia. The Russians of course, regardless of anything else, have a football pedigree. Qatar on the other hand, have little connection with football, is tiny and has temperatures reaching the high 40s in the summer months when World Cups are played.
David Yallop’s How They Stole the Game is a superb piece of investigative journalism which charts the story behind Sepp Blatter’s election as FIFA President in 1998, detailing the bribery, promises and secrecy involved in taking control of the beautiful game. Blatter tried fervently to prevent the book being published but he failed. Before even considering the content of Yallop’s book, the fact that he tried to prevent it being published is revealing in itself. If Yallop’s work was libellous, it would never have made it to the bookshelves. If it is not libellous, then what does Blatter have to hide?
The election in 1998 for the FIFA presidency was a murky affair. Sepp Blatter announced just four months before the election that he will be standing against the favourite and seemingly unstoppable ethical candidate Lennart Johansson. How different the game would have been in Johansson had won.
As Yallop recounts, Blatter made a visit in December 1997 to the Emir of Qatar, which resulted in the Emir ordering relations controlling the Qatari FA to do all that they could to assist Blatter’s campaign. Yallop says that it wasn’t long until the Qataris were picking up votes for the Swiss.
“It developed into a two-pronged infiltration. They began to pick up votes both from the African Confederation and from Asia.”
Mohamed Bin Hammam, the Qatari FIFA delegate, then went to Paris prior to a FIFA congress and spent his time procuring the voters for Blatter in the upcoming election. Rumours swirled of the deals being cut and allegedly Hammam offered 50,000 dollars for voting for Blatter. What Yallop then describes is eye opening.
As the election neared and Johansson seemed on course to win the presidency, money became more and more important, with an agreement made for a plane to leave Qatar on the orders of the Emir with 1 million onboard if Blatter was elected. The money was to then find its way to the delegates to collect immediately. What is more curious is that Johansson believed that he held a majority of about 20 votes going into the weekend that would assure him of victory.
1 million dollars at 50,000 a vote of course, makes 20 votes, and would explain away the reason that Blatter was able to seemingly come back from inevitable defeat to take the FIFA Presidency. This information has been procured as the result of conversations with UEFA delegates and those within the African confederation. They remain a sophisticated allegation. One that was challenged by FIFA, who failed to prevent their publication. And 12 years after the Blatter-Qatar axis delivered the presidency to the Swiss, his secret ballot of the FIFA Executive Committee duly delivered the World Cup to Qatar. A coincidence too far? Judge for yourself.
